Murder Ink: 4 murders this week, 138 murders this year

Baltimore enjoyed a rare lull in murders between Tuesday and Sunday. Even with just four homicides tallied in the third week of June, the pace last week was even with that of recent years.

June 12

Medical examiners determined that the death last fall of a 1-year-old boy was a homicide by “malnourishment and neglect,” police said last week. On Nov. 10, 2014, at 3:24 p.m. police went to a home on the 1200 block of North Eden Street to find Pernell Morris, a 20-month-old African-American boy, not breathing. He was pronounced dead 30 minutes later. Death investigations sometimes take months, and Baltimore Police practice is to tally homicides on the date of the determination of cause of death, so Morris is added almost eight months after his death to June’s homicide tally.

Monday, June 15

11:59 p.m. A 51-year-old man who police have not yet further identified was on the 2700 block of Harlem Avenue, in the Mosher neighborhood of West Baltimore, when someone shot him multiple times. He died on the street.

Tuesday, June 16

10:25 p.m. Two men were shot on the 800 block of Hillman Street in Oldtown. Police have not identified either victim yet, but say a 38-year-old man was shot in the stomach and was hospitalized. The other man, 39 years old, was shot in the head and died on the 800 block of McKim Street, around the corner.

Sunday, June 21

5:55 p.m. Police called to a shooting on the 2300 block of Belair Road found a 34-year-old man, who they have not yet publicly identified, suffering from at least one gunshot wound to his body. The man died soon afterward at a hospital. It was the second murder in the Four by Four neighborhood in two months.

Update

Police arrested a third suspect in the rape and murder of 16-year-old Arnesha Bowers. Raeshawn Rivers is 14 years old. Police say he gave a videotaped statement implicating himself in the murder, in which Bowers’ genitals were burned to destroy evidence of sexual contact. Rivers also allegedly used Bowers’ phone to send text messages to her friends after her death in order to throw investigators off. Police say the whole event was part of a gang initiation into the Tree Top Piru Bloods. Rivers allegedly told police he acted with the others under duress. Earlier stories about the crime dropped the s from Bowers’ name. City Paper regrets the error.